Joint coupling device for pneumatic toys



Nov. 27, 1962 CHlAKI SUGIMOTO 3,065,566

JOINT COUPLING DEVICE FOR PNEUMATIC TOYS Filed Jan. 5, 1961 I IN V EN TOR.

United States Patent )fiice 3,065,566 Patented Nov. 27, 1962 The present invention relates to a joint coupling device for pneumatic toys, wherein a hollow toy body having an air inlet pipe is provided with a small hole on its joint faces for toy parts, the joint faces being air-tight and detachably coupled with hollow toy parts, which are provided with a small hole to be connected with the small hole on the toy body by means of mutual convex and can cave joint faces.

In this kind of a pneumatic toy, the hollow body and the parts thereof are made of elastic material, such as gum, vinyl, polyethylene etc., and air is introduced from the air inlet pipe into the toy body, then into the toy parts through the small holes to inflate the body and the toy parts thereof.

No pneumatic toy has been proposed before, wherein hollow parts, such as the head, the arms and the legs are detachable, as well as rotatable, because upon removal of the parts, the air will readily leak through the joints from the inflated body.

It is one object of the present invention to provide a joint coupling device for pneumatic toys which eliminates the drawbacks of the known structures.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a joint coupling device for pneumatic toys which permits various poses of the parts, for example, the head may be turned from left to right, the arm or arms may be raised and lowered, the leg or legs may be made to stand for walking or thrown forward for sitting, and further 'these parts may be substituted by any others of a different form to increase the interest and to excite the curiosity of children.

With these and other objects in view, which will become apparent in the following detailed description, the present invention will be clearly understood in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a toy partly exploded and provided with a joint coupling device of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal section of the joints; and

FIG. 3 is a cross-section of the joints.

Referring now to the drawing, the hollow pneumatic toy body 1 has an air inlet pipe 3 attached thereto and a small hole 4 is provided on each of the respective joint faces of the body 1. Hollow toy parts 2 are provided with joint faces having a small hole 4, so located as to be connected with the small hole 4 on the toy body 1. The small holes 4- and 4' are connected at the joint faces of the toy body 1 and rotatably, as well as air-tightly, fitted to each other.

The embodiment of the connection of the small holes 4 and '4, shown in FIG. 1, is designed in such manner that at the center of a disk portion A projecting into the toy body 1, a projecting edge 5 having a small hole 4 is provided, and around the periphery of the projecting edge 5, concentric annular ring edges 5a and 5b are provided at a constant distance therefrom, forming grooves 6a and 6b between the edge 5 and the edges 5a, 5b, while at the joint faces of the toy parts 2, an annular ring projection 7 having a small hole 4' is provided. The inside diameter of the small hole 4' is equal to the outside diameter of the edge 5 and circular ring projection 7a is formed to define a groove 8 between the projections 7 and 7a. When the projection 7 is fitted to the edge 5, the projections 7 and 7a are fitted to the grooves 611 and 6b and the edge 5a to the groove 8 respectively, and at the same time the edge 51) is fitted to the periphery of the projection 7a, so that the joint parts of the toy body 1 and the toy parts 2 will be frictionally held together and be air-tight and rotatable relative to each other.

While I have disclosed one embodiment of the present invention, it is to be understood that this embodiment is given by example only and not in a limiting sense, the scope of the present invention being determined by the objects and the claims.

I claim:

A pneumatic toy made of resilient material comprising an inflatable hollow body having an air-inlet pipe,

said hollow body having a plurality of joint faces,

inflatable toy parts connected to said hollow body at said joint faces,

the center of each of said joint faces defining a small hole,

said parts having a joint face complementary to the corresponding joint faces of said hollow body,

said joint face of said parts defining a small hole communicating with the corresponding small holes of said hollow body,

each of said joint faces of said hollow body and of said parts having two concentric annular projections and grooves, respectively, which complement each other, thereby fitting tightly and resiliently said parts to said hollow body,

said projections having opposite sides and each of said concentric annular projections fitting into and being frictionally held by the opposite sides of the complementary groove of the other of said joint faces.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS FOREIGN PATENTS 432,303 France Oct. 2, 1911 

